The Aqueduct of Los Millares – Investigations of the Water Supply of a Large Chalcolithic Settlement in the South-East of the Iberian Pensinsula
Final Report Abstract
The Copper Age fortification of Los Millares in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula - 15 km north of Almería - was discovered by Louis Siret in 1891. The water supply he described – a spring at a distance of about 1 km from the settlement, a water conduit leading to the settlement, and a large water reservoir inside the settlement – were now reexamined and supplemented using geological, hydrogeological and archaeological studies and especially archaeometric methods. Therefore all previous findings on the water supply were newly recorded and presented in a synopsis with new finds. 230Th/U investigations on calcium carbonate deposits within the fortification provided archaeometric evidence of a leaky water conduit, from which water flowed or at least steadily dripped between 3,541 BC (+/- 92 years) and 2,591 BC (+/- 22 years) i.e. in the Early and Middle Copper Age. The location of the spring marked by L. Siret could not be verified. However, sinter deposits in a canyon bordering the plateau of Los Millares (approx. 400 m from the source site described by L. Siret) were formed while the fortification was still in use or shortly after it was abandoned. The location of the source, which no longer exists today, is assumed to be a few meters to the south-west from this sampling point in an area that is now heavily disturbed. It could be clearly proven that this source fed the aqueduct of Los Millares. U and Sr isotope analyses of groundwater samples in the catchment area as well as of the calcareous sinter deposits of the aqueduct foundation provided evidence that a mixture of thermal water and near-surface groundwater had flowed in the aqueduct. This fact let to the assumption that this enables the detection of climatic fluctuations in the Early and Middle Copper Age, as the proportion of thermal water in the spring must have been greater in dry periods. Then water demand and water management of the settlement was described. The focus of the considerations was the question how many inhabitants in Los Millares could be supplied with drinking and process water in times of crisis.
Publications
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Isotopenuntersuchungen an der Wasserversorgungsanlage einer kupferzeitlichen Siedlung in Südostspanien, in: G. Teutsch – A. Musolff – R. Kaufmann-Knoke – L. Jakobs (Hrsg.), Fachsektion Hydrogeologie in der DGGV e.V., Schriftenreihe 2, Tagungsband 2020 „Grundwasser und Flusseinzugsgebiete – Prozesse, Daten und Modelle“ 251 f.
A. E. Jakowski, A. Schröder-Ritzrau, N. Frank & J. M. Alonso Blanco
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El acueducto de Los Millares: descripción y nuevas investigaciones. Cuadernos de Prehistoria y Arqueología de la Universidad de Granada, 31, 255-284.
Jakowski, Anorte Elisabeth; Schröder-Ritzrau, Andrea; Frank, Norbert & Alsonso, Blanco José Miguel
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Wasserversorgung im 4. und 3. Jt. v. Chr. in Andalusien: Der Aquädukt von Los Millares und erste Untersuchungen zu Klimaschwankungen in der Kupferzeit, Madrider Mitteilungen 62.
A. E. Jakowski
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Los Millares – Water Supply and Water Management of a Copper Age Fortification in Andalusia, in: Brandherm, D. – Zimmermann, T. (Hrsg.), Proc. Metalages 2022, 13.-16.10.22, Ankara.
A. E. Jakowski
